This blog gives people a general idea of a student exchange trip, full of tips and accounts of first hand experience. Readers will hopefully find it interesting, and those who are considering going abroad will hopefully be encouraged to do just that. Studying abroad is an attainable goal.

Friday, July 7, 2017

I LIVED!!!

Well, this is it. The day is almost here. In just a few hours, I will say goodbye to my family and best friends in order to return to my family and friends. For the past 309 days, I've had the honor of being an exchange student. During that time period, I've stumbled through my second language every day until I came to master it. I've come to know and appreciate a way of living that in some ways is so very different from my own...and that of my native country's. People from all around the world came to hold a very dear place in my heart in such a short amount of time. Of course, I've tried lots of new things this year, tasted some new foods, and have been to places in the world that I only knew before from the Internet. This past year taught me a lot about who I was, who I am, and who I want to be, even if I don't have it all figured out yet. I've learned to live every day to the fullest and to continue to do that even when I am back where everything seems the same. In reality, I have so much to discover in my own country. I've made it through heartbreak and confusion this year when the people I longed to be comforted by the most were across the ocean. I've experienced what it's like, again, to miss someone. I've experienced what it's like to want to help someone but to not be able to because of distance, and that hurt.

Soon, it will all be over, at least for now. One of the best years of my life will return to what it was two years ago and the years before....a dream. No more playing card games with my friends during break at school, no more funny nicknames going on around for me, no more of my host parents mocking me because I get their language confused, and no more French parties. I will return to my family and friends and to what I used to do before going abroad, and the memories will come back as if no time passed at all. I will soon realize, however, that time has passed. and I have changed. I will come to realize, as I've heard before, that one of the hardest parts about being an exchange student is balancing the two worlds I live in. I will have to adapt again, but this time to things that at last year were so normal, and so hard to let go. And I will have to adapt all while staying true to my self, my new self.

As I've been preparing to leave, numerous questions have come to mind. How will I greet my family and friends back in the US? What will they say about my exchange year? What do they think I've done the past ten months? Will they like the new me? How many people that I knew before leaving will still be my friends when I get back? What did I miss in my native country while gone for a year?

I'm about to go now. I'm about to wheel my packed suitcase out that door and walk down the hallway for the last time. Emotion will overcome my pride as I wrap my arms around my new family and friends for the last time and I think of all that I've been through with them. I will get on the train, hoping I made as much of a difference in their lives as they did in mine. The hardest part about saying goodbye to someone is not the actual goodbye, but not knowing when you will see the person again. This year has brought me a lot, taught me a lot, and no matter what happen during from now, I can say one thing about this year....I lived.